Final wanderings in Vietnam

Day 66 - Well, we located our hotel. It was pretty much in the middle of a wet market (where produce, meat, etc is sold), the front steps doubling as stalls for two different ladies. It is hard to be graceful with a pack on, going up stairs, hoping with all your might not to trip into a whole bunch of cold cuts. Went on a wander to book a trip to the Mountain town of Sapa. Searching for a tour or tour company in Hanoi is a whole different ball game than anywhere else. See if someone has a good company going or is successful with their venture, the guy across the street with decide he wants to do it to. Not unusual right? Well, here is where it differs greatly from home. The guy entering the market will begin the process of exactly replicating the name, sign, sandwich board, etc of the successful company. The end result is that Sinh cafe is a great tour company but, you are hard pressed to find the real one when there are more than 20 Sinh Cafes in a 4 block area. We opted for a harder to forge tour company, in the fact that the Kangaroo Cafe has only two places copying it around town.

Day 67 - Took the day to wander around Hanoi and take in the Old Quarter. In the evening we stopped for a drink and realized the TV in the bar was playing the MTV show "My Super Sweet 16" and all the Vietnamese were glued to it (with that show as their guide, no wonder there is a common misunderstanding that all Americans are rich). Wandered over to our tour departure point and were put in a cab with a great couple from Queensland. Once on the train we lucked out to be sharing a cabin with another duo from Australia. They were married 7 weeks ago and promptly took off on a wander around SE Asia. When we all settled down for sleep it was pretty apparent that the "AC" on the train was struggling and, more than anything, I was glad the whole train didn't shake apart on the ride out there.

Day 68 - We arrived in Loi Cai, about 50km outside Sapa and were immediately swarmed by offers for a ride to Sapa. The offers started very high close to the train station but, once you passed the official bus stand the prices became very reasonable in the parking lot. The beauty of a tour is this was already arranged so we hoped into our NOT FULL van and headed off (the only time thus far in SE Asia that we had taken any mode of transport not packed to the gills). On the drive to Sapa the sun rose over the mountains and the mist, truly an amazing welcome. That afternoon we met up in the lobby of our hotel and were greeted by our local guides. Our guide Ker was 16 and recently married, she was also 4'9".
Our guide and her friend!
We went to visit a Hmong tribe village who grow rice and make clothing out of a indigo dyed cloth as well as silver jewelry. After a nice swim a ways up river and a 4k walk uphill, we were about ready to find a bite to eat. This is of course when the power goes out, everywhere. At least we got to see an immense amount of stars that night.

Day 69 - Took off around nine this morning for an 11km hike (who exactly designed this time table? Heat of the day!?). Got a chance to wander through rice paddies, hike a dry riverbed (not dry in the wet season when other tour are held) and see a number of other tribal villages in the area. I also had a chance to really talk with Ker today. She was very surprised to learn that I am 27, John is 28, and that being unmarried at that age does not doom us to wither away for the rest of our days. She explained that in her tribe if you have not found someone by age 22 or 23 you will be single forever and have to get support from your siblings when you are old. Somehow this conversation lead to her retelling the recent events of Tet (the Vietnamese New Year). A boy (not her boyfriend) from a wealthy family in another village wrote a letter asking for her hand in marriage. When she refused him three times, he and his family came to her village on the 1st day of the new year in an attempt to kidnap her and marry her (yes that is still how it works there). Luckily her family thought she should marry to be happy, so they hid her for the next two days. At this point they had gotten word to her boyfriend's family who arrived so the two of them could marry and she would be safe from the kidnappers. Pretty exciting new year!

The town of Sapa looking back at it

Day 70 - Spent the day wandering around down town Sapa (both streets) and simply taking in the view. Sapa is set pretty high in the hills so from nearly every point you get a great look across or down the valley. Headed back to Lo Cai to return on another overnight train. We lucked out and were in the same car as Kylie and Rick, the couple we met on the way over. Everyone was exhausted from three days of walking in the sun and pretty much slept the whole way.

Day 71 - The only problem with the overnight train back is the 4:20am arrival in Ha Noi. Almost nothing is open at this time, though people are starting to move about. After dawdling to gather our bags we opted to walk from the train station to the center of town. After encountering one closed shop after another we put all hope in KFC channeling its US roots and be open 24 hours for at least a cup of coffee, no dice.
On the steps of a very closed KFC
We did finally locate a shop around 6 am. Given the mental level we were all functioning at, it took about 2 hours to dine. Rest of the day was pretty much spent recovering from a 4:00 am wake up.

Day 72 - Today we gathered our gear and hoofed it to the Kangaroo Cafe thinking that a tuk tuk or other transportation would be available to take us most of the way. The only time in Ha Noi when we would have ridden one, and there were none available. Along our walk we noticed that the street around the central lake was blocked off by the police. After inquiring, we learned that there was a bicycle race going on. After depositing our bags, I went and watched the racers as they looped the lake. Some time later, Eliza motioned me back to the cafe to see why our tour hadn't left. Apparently the tour bus could not reach us because of the bike race. Ha Noi traffic 1, us 0. So were took a smaller taxi/bus to the bigger bus. On the big bus we were delayed even further by (as our tour guide explained) "a corrara parade". Which is actually a cholera informational parade. Cholera being the hardest word to pronounce when your native language doesn't have the hard "ch" sound or the letter "L". Ha Noi traffic 2, us 0. Just when you think all is well, yep, a funeral procession. Ha Noi traffic 3, us 0.
Said bicycle race
So we finally reached our boat, only a little late, and enjoyed a nice lunch. As our first stop, the boat took us to a large cave system. Spelunking not being either of our thing, we toddled along behind the group and attempted to take pictures of funny shaped rocks. Harder than it sounds because a cave is dark and pictures work better with light. After getting back on the boat we had dinner with a trio of Londoners, played some new card games, and went to sleep.

Looking out at all the boats from a cave

Day 73 - Today we woke up to a huge rain/lightning/thunder storm. Like so many of the rain storms here the sky simply opens up for a couple of hours and drenches everything. Luckily for us we did not have to venture out in the deluge. We simply got to sit back and enjoy the storm as our boat puttered along. After some transportation transfers (big boat to car, car to ferry, ferry to small boat), the rain had mostly stopped, or passed us by, when we reached our destination. Which was a small cave accessed by hiking through a fish sauce farm. How do you farm fish sauce you're wondering? Well, it starts with fish in a pond, and then is smells really bad. The cave was cool, with a Buddha shrine and some rock formations that were supposed to look like dragons and other animals. I didn't really see them. Then we headed back out on our boat to Cat Ba Island. We checked into our hotel and began relaxing when the power went out.
And as we were deciding what to do next, the power came back on. So we decided to take a walk. On our walk we found an internet cafe, which we used until the power went out again. After explaining that the minimum usage fee should not be applied because the internet doesn't work so well with out power, we headed back to the hotel. We walked own the one street town to find dinner (this time equipped with a head lamp, or as the British and Australians like to call it, a head torch), and settled on a place with four others from our tour group. The most exciting part about dinner (besides the company) was the escaping crab. Your know those fresh seafood tanks in restaurants were they store crabs and lobsters so patrons can select them. One crab escaped from the tank. We were eating dinner when I noticed a crab attempting to reach the top of the tank by pinching his (or her) claw around the water bubble maker and flipping himself body over claw towards the top of the tank. He must have tried ten times before finally managing to hook to the top rim of the tank. From there he simply lifted the rest of his body over the ege and hoisted himself to freedom. What I am pretty sure he didn't calculate was the distance from the tank to the ground, because he hit the concrete with a loud shell cracking crunch. I didn't actually see him hit the ground, but I am sure he wasn't 100 percent after the fall. But he did manage give the restaurant owner and his wife a half hour lesson on how to play hide-and-go-seek. Which was especially comical given they were armed with a broom and a bucket, but there weapon of choice was high pitched squeals and flailing. Oh, and I think the power only went out one more time during dinner.

Day 74 - Woke up to a glorious, sunshiny day. The boat ride back to Ha Long city was great, we had a chance to see the island formations in all types of weather over the course of the trip.
The ride back
Had a nice dinner with Sonal, Beena and Meera (the great London Trio). At dinner Sonal and I attempted to order vegetable soup with noodles (the noodles not being part of the dish). Over the course of the next hour first the vegetable soup came out, the desire for noodles was again conveyed, then the noodles came out but were of the wheat variety, and finally rice noodles appeared. This is a lesson for any SE Asian traveler: attempts to alter a dish are rarely successful on the fist try.
After dinner we headed over to Fanny's Ice cream, which we now know is a hilarious name. A few days back, while playing cards with these three on the boat, John and I were laughing at the neon fanny packs worn by a couple on another boat. The three were laughing too but for a different reason. Meera spoke up and said "we find it so funny that Americans call them fanny packs. You know what a fanny is in Britain?" "uh, no?" "It means...Lady Bits. We just call them bum bags". And, as the mature, world traveling grownups we are, John and I crack up every time we hear the term fanny packs.


Day 75 - Today we both recovered from our recent trip out of town. Walked around Ha Noi some and found the best Pho place on earth. It is located north of St. Joseph's Cathedral and is cleverly name "Pho something" (except the something might actually be a word besides something, my memory is a little hazy. Oh man, it is too hot here). Anyway big orange sign. You can't miss it. Also, I purchased two bungee cords and taped them together to form a jump rope. As we had decide calisthenics might be needed after two months of Chinese and Vietnamese food. (heavy on the oil please).

Day 76 - We woke up early to pay our respect to Uncle Ho (as apparently Uncle Ho is the local term of endearment for Ho Chi Minh). Visiting Uncle Ho is like a scaled down version of visiting Mao. Not as many people and not as much security, but with the same level of respect; lines are formed and silence is observed. And after seeing Ho Chi Minh and Mao, Mao looked more like a waxed replica and Ho Chi Minh looked like a dead guy. We then wandered back to meet up with Kyle Beattie (a friend from both mine and Eliza's from home). While we were waiting in the church parking lot, we were offered the opportunity to buy three cyclo rides, food from two pastry ladies and one pineapple lady, and any number of fake/copied books. After meeting up with Kyle we learned his trick for dealing with all the offers: Cylo driver: "Cylco, city tour cheap, you ride with me" Kyle: "Shoes, $5, you walk with me". Book seller: "You buy book from me" Kyle: "Already read it", book seller: "This one" Kyle: "Already read it", book seller: "This one" Kyle: "Already read it" and so on. And my personal favorite is his plan for the pedestrian armed with an air horn to compete with the scooters and cars. Although, this one may backfire in the long run, as the local might actually think it is a good idea. With Kyle, we decided on a local street restaurant for dinner where we were the only foreigners.
If you look between their arms, you can see the height of the "chairs" we were sitting at (and all the empty plates from dinner)!
Eliza, in her shy and bashful manner, managed to get the guy one table over to order our whole meal. Except the beer, which we managed on our own. It was a very good selection of fish, tofu (Eliza and Kyle tell me it was good, my bite tasted like soy sauce mush), peanuts, and calamari. After sampling the local food, and local portion sizes, we headed for back-up dinner at a westernized (Vietnamese food with western portion sizes) restaurant. We then wandered the town, had a couple drinks, and headed back to our respective hotels.

Day 77 & 78 - The last two days in Ha Noi can best be described as "administrative". Covered our room with laundry, confirmed our flight with Vietnam Airlines (long process when you get there at lunch, though they stay open, most of the staff takes lunch too), some packing for Laos and other fun things like that. In the midst of our errands we did get a chance to take in the opera house and the pagoda bridge for some final Vietnam History. Ended our stay in Vietnam with some almost Seattle-esque Mexican food.

And as our trend continues:
More pictures to follow and we are again only one country behind!
Cambodia bound tomorrow where we will begin filling in the adventure that we had in Laos!